Leading Sustainable Change

An Organizational Perspective

Edited by Rebecca Henderson, Ranjay Gulati, and Michael Tushman

Contributions from leading scholars in the field of organizational change

Combines both leading edge thinking with concrete examples

Analyses the challenge of sustainability for large organizations

Identifies major drivers of organisational change

Leading Sustainable Change

An Organizational Perspective

Edited by Rebecca Henderson, Ranjay Gulati, and Michael Tushman

Description

The business case for acting sustainably is becoming increasingly compelling - reducing our global footprint to sustainable levels is the defining issue of our times and it is one that can only be addressed with the active participation of the private sector. However, persuading well-established organizations to act in new ways is never easy.

This book is designed to support business leaders and organizational scholars who are grappling with this challenge by pulling together leading edge insights from some of the world's best researchers as to how organizational change in general - and sustainable change in particular - can be most effectively managed. The book begins by laying out the economic case for change, while subsequent chapters describe how leaders at firms such as Du Pont, IBM and Cemex have transformed their organizations, exploring issues such as the role of the senior team and the ways in which firms shift their identities, build innovative cultures and processes, and begin to change the world around them. Business leaders will find the book a source of both powerful examples and immediately actionable ideas, while scholars will be deeply intrigued by the insights that emerge from the cross-cutting exploration of one of the toughest challenges our society has ever faced.

Leading Sustainable Change

An Organizational Perspective

Edited by Rebecca Henderson, Ranjay Gulati, and Michael Tushman

Table of Contents

Foreword David Jones, CEO of HavasIntroduction 1. Leading Sustainable Change: An Introduction, Rebecca Henderson, Ranjay Gulati, Michael Tushman2. Making the Business Case for Sustainability, Rebecca HendersonThe Big Picture 3. Stumbling Towards Sustainability, John Sterman4. From Periphery to Core: A Process Model for Embracing Sustainability, Luciana Silvestri and Ranjay Gulati5. How Purpose-Based Companies Master Change for Sustainability: A Systemic Approach to Global Social Change, Rosabeth Moss KanterThe role of the senior team 6. Staying the Same while Changing: Organizational Identity in the Face of Environmental Challenges, Mary Ann Glynn, Christi Lockwood and Ryan Raffaelli7. Two Tales of One City: Samsung, Daewoo, and Lessons on Large-Scale Transformation, Donald Sull8. Chief Sustainability Officers: Who are they and what do they do?, Kathy Miller and George SerafeimExploring the processes of change 9. Two Roads to Green: A Tale of Bureaucratic versus Distributed Leadership Models of Change, Deborah Ancona, Elaine Backman, and Kate Isaacs10. Leading Proactive Punctuated Change, Michael Tushman, Charles O'Reilly and Bruce HarreldLeading change in the broader system 11. The Role of Multiplier Firms and Megaprojects in Leading Change for Sustainability, Amy C. Edmondson, Martine Haas, John Macomber and Tiona Zuzul12. Managing Shifting Goal Consensus and Task Ambiguity In Making the Transition to Sustainability, Alfred Marcus and Andrew Van derVen13. Sustainability & Organizational Change: An Institutional Perspective, Royston Greenwood, Dev Jennings and Bob Hinings

Rebecca Henderson is John & Natty McArthur University Professor at Harvard University, and a research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research. She is also faculty co-chair of HBS's Initiative for Business and the Environment.Her research focuses on the difficulties large organizations encounter in attempting to innovate and change, particularly in response to the challenge of sustainability. She has worked with some of the largest firms in the world and with entrepreneurial start-ups in a wide variety of industries including energy, pharmaceuticals, information technology, materials and consumer goods.In May 2011, Dr. Henderson was appointed to the U.S. Department of Commerce Innovation Advisory Board which guided a study of U.S. economic competitiveness and innovation to help inform national policies at the heart of U.S. job creation and global competitiveness, and in June 2013 she became a member of the World Economic Forum's global agenda council on the role of business.

Ranjay Gulati is the Jaime and Josefina Chua Tiampo Professor and the Unit Head of the Organizational Behavior Unit at Harvard Business School. He is also the Chair of Harvard Business School's Advanced Management Program. He is an expert on leadership, strategy, and organizational issues in firms. His recent work explores leadership and strategic challenges for building high growth organizations in turbulent markets. Some of his prior work has focused on the enablers and implications of within-firm and inter-firm collaboration. He has looked at both when and how firms should leverage greater connectivity within and across their boundaries to enhance performance. Professor Gulati is the past-President of the Business Policy and Strategy Division at the Academy of Management and an elected fellow of the Strategic Management Society. He was ranked as one of the top ten most cited scholars in Economics and Business over a decade by ISI-Incite.

Michael L. Tushman Is the faculty chair of Leading Change and Organizational Renewal (LCOR) and the Program for Leadership Development (PLD) at the Harvard Business School. Prior to PLD, Tushman was faculty chair of the Advanced Management Program (AMP). At Columbia, he won the first W. H. Newman Award for excellence and innovation in the classroom; in 2005, Tushman was named Lecturer of the Year at CHAMPS, Chalmers University of Technology; in 2008 he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Geneva where he was commended by the university as a scholar internationally recognized for his work on the relationships between technological change and organizational evolution; in 2011 he was given the Sumantra Ghoshal Award for Rigour & Relevance in the Study of Management from London Business School; in 2013 he was awarded the Academy of Management Career Achievement Award for Distinguished Scholarly Contributions to Management

Leading Sustainable Change

An Organizational Perspective

Edited by Rebecca Henderson, Ranjay Gulati, and Michael Tushman

Reviews and Awards

"Henderson, Gulati & Tushman have organized, edited and led some of the world's leading relevant business strategists and thought leaders to create the defining guide for Leading Sustainable Change at the executive, organizational and institutional level. It will inspire follow-on research globally and guide leaders in the world's top companies who are moving sustainability from the "periphery to the core."" Jim Boyle, Sustainability Roundtable Inc

"As humans struggle to respond to a daunting array of complexly interacting environmental challenges -- often with too little help from our political institutions -- it is critical for corporations to step up to promote global sustainability. To do so successfully, companies need not just will but also the capacity to challenge established modes of economic thought and to effect significant change across a range of stubbornly interdependent practices and systems. Leading Sustainable Change recruits an all-star team of management scholars to provide the insight and guidance that managers will need to meet this challenge, in a set of well-crafted essays from which their fellow academics will have much to learn, as well." Paul DiMaggio, Professor of Sociology, Princeton University

"This book is an essential read for anyone who is putting a toe in the water of driving change in a business. And for the next generation of leaders, to start framing a different way of thinking. I hope it has the impact it deserves and our society is hoping for." Sue Garrard, SVP Sustainable Business Development and Communications, Unilever

"The journey to build a sustainable business will require big technical changes in how we account, report and manufacture. Yet the biggest change we need is also the one we think about least. How do we change the purpose, culture, leadership and values of a business so that its entire workforce and customer base is aligned with the need for and delivery of a sustainable business model? Hendersons book fills this void drawing on the very best thinking on leading sustainable change balancing academic rigor with business practicality." Mike Barry, Director Plan A, Marks & Spencer

"Leading Sustainable Change: An Organizational Perspective provides a thought-provoking agenda for guiding private sector transformation toward sustainability. Based on rich, diverse, yet interrelated applications of state-of-the-art theory and research on organizations and management, this a must-have reference for both scholars and business leaders." William Ocasio, John L. and Helen Kelloff Professor of Management and Organizations, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University

"Leading Sustainable Change is an excellent exploration of the organizational considerations central to becoming a 21st century company of purpose." Kenneth Pucker, Board Chair, investor, Timbuk2 Designs and Lecturer, Boston University School of Management

"Leading Sustainable Change is, simply put, about the future of capitalism and the planet. It's a compelling lens on how executives who "mean well" about the environment can reinvent their thinking and their companies. The book combines hard data with real corporate examples and underlying theory. An essential book for thoughtful executives and academics who recognize that sustainable change is the inevitable future." Kathleen M. Eisenhardt, S.W. Ascherman M.D. Professor at Standford University and co-author, 'Simple Rules: How to Thrive in a Complex World'